Russian Military Base Violates Interstate Agreement with Armenia

The leadership of the 102nd Russian military base has again violated the Armenian-Russian interstate agreement because it did not immediately inform the Armenian law enforcement agencies about the disappearance of the serviceman from the military base, the human rights activist Arthur Sakunts told Lragir.am.

Note that the Russian military base informed the Armenian law enforcement agencies about the disappearance of the Russian serviceman Dmitry Loshmanov who escaped from the Russian military base in Gyumri on April 18. Meanwhile, according to the police, the Russian serviceman escaped on April 16, at around 9:30. Note that the Armenian law enforcement agencies were not immediately informed about the escape of the Russian serviceman Permyakov who was sentenced for killing the Avetisyan family.

“Once again a violation of the provision envisaged by the Russian-Armenian interstate agreement. In such cases the Armenian law enforcement agencies must be informed immediately but they weren’t. The Armenian side must send a relevant note to the Russian embassy and the authorities pointing to the violation of the interstate agreement by the leadership of the Russian military base,” Sakunts said.

The human rights activist says this case comes to prove that there are issues with the servicemen of the Russian base which are directly related to the conditions of service in the Russian base or issues relating to service. And the public in Armenia is not properly informed about the situation in the Russian military base.

Sakunts says the Russian base obviously has not drawn any conclusions from the murder of the Avetisyan family that it must provide proper information to the Armenian public on incidents or issues which may affect the citizens of Armenia.

“All those arguments or excuses that this is an internal issue of the Russian base cannot be considered substantial because some of the tasks of defense of border and security are assigned to a base and the situation there is relevant to the public because this base is in charge of the security and defense of the same public,” he said.

According to Sakunts, this comes to prove that the Armenian authorities do not control the mechanisms of control over the situation in the Russian base, possible problems. On the other hand, he says, Russia represented by the military base leadership does not feel obliged to report to the Armenian authorities.

“If it does report, the Armenian authorities must account for every issue. This is not an office, this is an armed group which has weapons, there must be military discipline there for us to be sure that it is not a source of danger. However, so far, the doubts that the Russian base is a threat to our security, to the life of the citizens have not been dispersed,” Sakunts said.